Another fine mess: the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith ‘Kasco’ Schembri, wins the first two tenders out for supply of paper to the government of Malta
Somebody who owns a business group with an annual turnover of millions (or even a small turnover – it should be no business at all) should never have been put in the government’s second most powerful position after the prime minister.
When a momentary fuss was made about his appointment, the prime minister told us that his best friend and closest aide, Schembri, would he divesting himself of his directorships (but crucially, not his shareholding – obviously) and that his companies would not bid for government tenders.
During the election campaign and its aftermath, there was much talk by Labour about how its campaign was successful because it was approached like a product branding and marketing exercise, and how the Labour Party was changed using a business model and run like a business.
Now it seems they have carried that approach into government, in the worst possible way. Any business opportunity, they’ll take it, from leasing their own aged car to the government and bringing in seven times more over five years (Eur35,000) than they would by selling it second hand now (Eur5000), to using government positions to bring in business for their private companies.
Four months in, and this government is already just too much.
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Net TV idiots.
“Kumpanija qrib”? What’s that supposed to mean? Kumpanija TAC-chief of staff.
Schembri senior is the nominal director of Keith Schembri’s companies.
Alfio Schembri owns 2 (yes, two) shares in Kasco Holdings. Keith Schembri owns one million, one hundred and fifteen thousand, two hundred and seventy nine shares at a nominal value of one Euro each.
Ma tghaddix gurnata li ma nisimghux b’xi gaffe minn dan il-gvern!
Quote:” One gaffe after another!” -Editorial Sunday Times of Malta dd 30.06.2013.
This government has become a real pathetic joke already.
Gigi, the problem is precisely that government is not a joke.
Bla bla bla …
KASCO : http://www.kasco.com.mt/?m=about&id=9&t=About
Tender Advert: https://gov.mt/en/Government/Government%20Gazette/Tenders/Pages/Government-Printing-Press.aspx
Results of tenders/quotes …
Tenders: https://mti.gov.mt/en/Tenders%20and%20Quotations/Pages/Tenders%202013.aspx
Quotes: https://mti.gov.mt/en/Tenders%20and%20Quotations/Pages/Quotations%202013.aspx
Can’t be seen anywhere … did they think they could actually manage to hide this news??
It is only a Kascoincidence.
U ejja this must be a dream. How can it be! This is a joke. Josephmuscatdotcom would not let that happen for sure he being so righteous.
“They think they bloody own the place.”
Labour’s pre-election video.
Tkompli l-majjalata.
Re. Tender Advert.
Issued on May 31st (FRIDAY) presumably during office hours.
Closing on June 4th (TUESDAY) at 10.00am.
Tendering time, practically, MONDAY June 3rd and a weeny bit of TUESDAY June 4th.
Was the advert relating to a few reams of copying/printing paper costing a few hundred Euros, or was it much more than that.
If the latter was the case, why was it not advertised together with other tenders? Did any concern know of its imminent issue – and its brief ‘life’ beforehand?
After all, one of the tenders/quotations advertised related to the supply/installation of liquid membrane on the Cospicua Regatta Club. Not a matter of thousands of Euros worth, I should presume.
What about the function of the Treasury Contracts Committee? It did work efficiently when officials I respected – and still do – sat on it.
It might not be obvious at first sight, but look at the dates of this call for tenders:
https://gov.mt/en/Government/Government%20Gazette/Tenders/Pages/Government-Printing-Press.aspx
The notice is dated 31st May, which was a Friday, and offers had to be submitted by 10a.m. the following Tuesday, 4th June. Seriously?
The bidders had to go collect the tender document in person, read it, prepare their quote and send it in 1 working day?
To make it EVEN MORE OBVIOUS, the PDF of the tender document was created at 5pm on the Friday, so that day was a write-off. You couldn’t even collect it on the Friday as it wasn’t yet published. http://s18.postimg.org/7nxphi6yh/untitled.jpg
If this is the Labour’s idea for a fair tender, get ready for the power station.
By the time these five years are up, the Real Evil Click are going to be rolling in it.
It’s not a power station, remember. It’s a contract to supply power and gas. Period. That’s how they got around EU mandated procurement rules.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Everyone in the Maltese business scene knows that Kasco are the unchallenged leaders in paper distribution.
I have personally acquired quotes for bulk purchasing of paper from the leading advertised paper distributors in Malta and no one came close to Kasco’s quote, in terms of quality and price. Some distributors were not interested in quoting when I mentioned that I also asked Kasco to quote!
Let’s give credit where credit is due. The company is strong, they give a good service and it did not become strong in these past few months. They even have have a factory at Bulebel in this line of business. Let’s be frank about this. Kasco have been winning government contracts (University of Malta for one I believe) in this line even when the PN was in power.
[Daphne – That is not the point. One point is this: that when the prime minister appointed Schembri as his chief of staff, he said that Schembri’s companies would not participate in government tenders. The second point is this: a millionaire businessman should not be the prime minister’s chief of staff. If you need the reasons explained to you, this is an outpost of Kazakhistan.]
No conflict of interest, mhux hekk tghid?
Il-punt fuq x’qed jigri mhux qed jiftiehem min nies milli jidher.
Flok noqghod infiehem nahseb li bizzejjed nghid li min ha xi kariga li biha kellu jaghzel jew ix-xoghol li kien jaghmel jew il-pozizzjoni offruta lilu kellu jidderciedi x’irid. Jistudja sew ix-xoghol li gie moghti, x’se jitlef u x’se jakkwista.
Imbaghad jiddeciedi x’hinu l-ahjar ghalih. Qed nghid hekk ghax kulhadd jidhol fil-politika specjalment bil-hsieb li jservu, imma jkun hemm ukoll certi pozizzjonijiet li mhux iservu imma jisservew.
Are his company returns now in? Before the elections, I had checked and the last returns in were those of 2008. Was there a reason for waiting so long?)